A Place to Call Home: Predictive Factors of Placement Stability for Children in Foster Care

Background: Caregiver stability and continuity throughout childhood has been linked to overall well-being and positive outcomes for children, including developing secure attachments and being capable of forming healthy relationships. However, many children entering the foster care system in the U.S. face chronic instability and disruptions in their attachments with caregivers and significant adults. Despite the well-documented negative effects of such constant instability, almost 50% of children in some U.S. states experience placement instability.

Objective: This paper identifies risk and protective factors at the child, family, and community level that are associated with placement stability for children in foster care in the United States. To identify profiles of children who are more likely to experience instability, a predictive model was created to classify children when they enter care. It was hypothesized that restrictive placements, special needs, and older age at intake will act as risk factors for placement instability, while placements with family (relative or nonrelative care) and younger age at intake will serve as protective factors.

Methods:  Secondary data analysis was conducted based on 2014 data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), representing over 650,000 children in foster care. Multinomial logistic regression assessed factors that could contribute to children belonging to different levels of stability while in foster care. The outcome measure, level of stability, classified cases into three groups: children who experienced stability, were neutral (neither stability or instability), and those who experienced instability during their stay in foster care.

Results: We identified 13 factors associated with placement stability for children in care. At the child’s level, older age at removal and emotional disturbance were associated with placement instability; children with a DSM-IV psychological diagnosis were over 3 times more likely to experience instability during their time in care than those without a psychological diagnosis. At the family level, children removed due to physical or sexual abuse were more likely to experience instability, while those who were removed for parental substance use were more likely to be stable. Finally, at the community level, children in pre-adoptive placements were more likely to have experienced instability, while those who were in kinship care or trial reunification with biological parents had the highest levels of stability in care.

Conclusions:  Findings from this study indicated that continued contact and placement within the biological family lead to more stability for children in foster care. Prior literature has established a link between increased stability and well-being for children.  Our findings re-affirm the importance of engaging biological families of children in care so that children can be placed with extended family when staying with their primary caregivers is not a safe option.